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Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya Episode 9 Review

I really liked what the producers did with this episode. It’s split into two diverging perspective each focusing on Miyu and Illya and their different positions up till this point of the story. It begins with Illya quietly soaking in the bath while Miyu is preparing to collect the last card with Rin and Luvia. It seems like this is the first normal night that Illya’s had all to herself and for Miyu, this is her first battle on her own.

Rating: 4.5/5 curiously excited clouds

Berserker is a formidable class, from what we’ve seen in both Fate Stay Night and Fate Zero so it’s no surprise that he’s the most difficult enemy to defeat in this series… especially when our two heroes are elementary school girls.

Miyu, like all the other quiet characters I’ve seen in recent anime and manga series, isn’t very good with words. Her heart’s in the right place, she just doesn’t know how to express it to others, especially those that she feels strongly for. Illya on the other hand is an open book and it’s not hard to tell what she’s feeling or what she intends. She’s one of those heroes who need a strong mentor to keep her on the right track (or a lot of episode of drudging self-reflection till it finally hits her in the face)

Enter Irisviel von Einzbern!

It blows my mind how Illya, Irisviel, Shirou and possibly Kiritsugu could all appear in the same scene. The fact that Illya and her mother actually interact and talk in this series is blowing my mind. To be honest, I really didn’t expect either of Illya’s parents to appear in the show but Irisviel is a key character in how the episode and Illya turns out.

As Illya is having a heart-to-heart with her mother, Miyu is fighting for her life against Berserker. With immense strength and regenerative resurrection power, it seems like he’s undefeatable. Though Rin and Luvia decide to retreat, Miyu is set on fighting till the end and sends back the other girls so that she can face her opponent on her own without having to worry about other casualties.

MOST EPIC MOMENT – When Miyu shows us how to use the card’s true power…

“I hereby propose. Give thy body unto me. Give thy sword unto my hands. If in accordance to the summons of the Holy Grail, thou dost accede to this will, this reason, then answer me. I hereby swear, I will be all that is good in the eternal world. I will be the disposer of evil in the eternal world. Thou seven heavens, clad with the Great Trinity, come forth from the circle of constraint, Guardian of the Heavenly Scales. Install!”

Miyu takes on Saber’s heroic spirit unto herself and resolves to end the battle! (I got an intense Cardcaptors deja-vu when she tapped the card with her staff)

“This is what Illya was able to do before. Accessing the Throne of Heroes with the Card. It’s a pseudo-summon that copies a portion of a hero’s power, corresponding to the Class, overwriting your own existence. In other words, you become a Heroic Spirit.” – Miyu

Seeing Miyu’s spirit in battle is really astonishing. Throughout the entire episode, I kept urging Irisviel to hurry on with the motherly advice and the inspirational words. The last thing I wanted to see was Miyu get killed before Illya could rush over to back her up.

But of course, Illya rushes to battle in the last minutes of the episode. Miyu, after unleashing Saber’s Noble Phantasm, is out of mana. As a result, her body rejects both the class card and Sapphire’s powers, leaving her completely open to Berserker’s attack. Illya rescues Miyu! Taking one of Berserker’s lives with one slash of Ruby and the episode ends there!

I hope you guys liked this review! Miyu gave some really great quotes and Illya’s last lines were really awesome lines as well! I can’t wait for next week’s episode! There will only be three more left… how will the battle turn out? How many more Heroic Spirit transformations will we see? On top of all this, we get a new credit reel!

6 thoughts on “Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya Episode 9 Review”

so the series is only 10 episodes long not 12 and after it’s finished i highly suggest you read the manga as there are some key differences to how the assassin fight played out and Iri’s conversation with Illya.

Am I the only one getting pissed when watching this? Oh wait, I’m a manga reader, of course I am pissed…

What really concerns me is that many people would be interested in a sequel, right? So one would probably want to adapt the source material as faithful as possible. I believed Silver Link could do it, until I watched episode 7 and was utterly shocked. And angry. They almost completely took out the foreshadowing for the second season 2wei and drastically changed Miyu and Ilya’s character.

You may think she’s Miyu’s foil and you can read her like an open book, but fear for death is not the true reason. This isn’t even the reason why she is so depressed and cannot talk to Miyu. She is afraid of her own power. Afraid that she is not a normal girl. Afraid of what this power can do. Rin understood this last episode (removed) and this is exactly what Iri points out to Ilya, making it clear that Ilya was right and she really is not normal.

She encourages Ilya to not run away and go to Miyu because Ilya’s power is a part of her and it’s neither good nor evil, although Iri and Sella (Oh yes, she does know about Ilya’s power as well, why was this removed, Silver Link?) are concerned about Ilya’s seal that opened up twice against Saber Alter and Assassin. Incidentally, Silver Link also took out the little fun in the bath scene.

But overall, changing Ilya’s wish for normalcy also ruins parts of Ilya’s personality, since it’s important to know. As a manga reader, I am very disappointed.

Btw, Miyu never blames Ilya for anything. She is loyal and honest, but very quiet. The change in episode 7 made her look like a jerk, even though it’s clear she is not. And she also has secrets. Silver Link removed a very important line this episode. Miyu doesn’t want Rin and Luvia to find out about the install functions, that’s why she wanted to be alone.

However, a few hints are still left. Perhaps no one pays attention to it, but why did Miyu know the incantation for the Holy Grail War Summon, when Ilya never used it because she simply skipped the process? This is a huge unanswered question and no one knows if we will see the answer getting animated.

Again, kudos to the author. Little nods to FSN like Rin’s surprise concerning Berserker’s resurrection Noble Phantasm or Saber (Miyu) getting beaten up by Berserker are always nice to see and still make me enjoy this series.

P.S. Next episode is the last one. We only get ten episodes for the first season because there were only 13 chapters + an epilogue.

Thanks for the awesome and detailed comment. You always have really great insight! I should really read the manga and maybe play the other Type-moon games. I do think the short little series doesn’t do justice to either of the girls’ personalities, there isn’t A LOT of character development or intense plot development but it’s a really nice series for fans of the Fate Series. Personally, I love how the Fate series overarching world. Btw, do you know that Ufotable is remaking Fate Stay Night?

Yes, I do know ufotable is handling FSN. I think every Type-Moon fan knows this by now. Kara no Kyoukai Mirai Fukuin and its Blu-Ray release comes first, though I think. 🙂

And as phoenix7240 suggested, do read the manga. It is really good, though some plot points are harder to understand, if one lacks background knowledge. FSN VN knowledge should be enough, though. Maybe some hollow ataraxia knowledge as well, but that is secondary.

The only thing I have to warn people about though is the fanservice, that is taken to another level starting with 2wei. The art, humour and the story get better and the fights are in my opinion even more awesome, but I had the feeling that the author’s editor urged him to do more fanservice.

Compare it to Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari. Bakemonogatari did have some fanservice, but Nisemonogatari was full of it. Granted, the author didn’t want Nisemonogatari to be released and wrote it for fun and when it was published, decided to not make any changes.